Sacrifices and incenses – fields and entanglement

Sacrifices and incenses – fields and entanglement

(Recent Purim celebrations distracted me from writing on the weekly Torah portion. But I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share my thoughts on the last week’s Torah portion – Tetzaveh. So here it is.)

At the end of the weekly portion, Tetzaveh, Torah speaks of the burnt offerings (Heb. qorbanot) and the incense offerings (Heb. qetoret). The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, contrasts these two types of offerings by highlighting their symbolism.

The Hebrew word for a burnt offering or sacrifice, qorban, is etymologically related to the word qarov “close,” qiruv “to bring close” and qerovim “relatives,” as they all share the same root QRB “to be close.” Sacrificial offering (qorban) meant to bring a person who brought it close (qarov) to God.

The Hebrew word for incense offerings, qetoret, literally means “smoke, odor of sacrifice, incense.” However, Radak points out that the word qeturot means “connected” as it is etymologically related to the Aramaic word qeter “to bind” and to the Hebrew word qesher “to bind,” “connection” or “knot.”

The Rebbe points out the difference between sacrifices and incense offerings. The former was supposed to bring a person closer to God. However, close is still separate. It is a relative term signifying a degree of separation. Someone who is close is less separate to the one who is far, but separate nonetheless. The incense offering, however, signified a connection that bound us to God. The Rebbe points out that just as in a knot one cannot separate one string from another—the are essentially one thing, a knot—one cannot separate people of Israel from God, and that was the symbolism of incense offerings.

I would like to propose another translation for a word qeter—“to entangle” or “entanglement.” I believe the word “entanglement” better captures the multiple meaning of the Hebrew word qeter—“connection,” “bind” or “knot.”

To me, sacrificial offerings and incense offering symbolize two types of physical interaction: field and quantum entanglement. Particle interacting through a field—such as a gravitational field or electromagnetic field—can attract each other and get closer together. Thus, sacrificial offerings (qorbanot) are a metaphor for a field. The incense offerings (qetoret) offer a metaphor for quantum entanglement, whereby two separate objects become bound (kesher or qeter) together like a knot (qesher).

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Alexander Poltorak was trained as a theoretical physicist in Russia. He is Chairman and CEO of General Patent Corporation. Dr. Poltorak served as an Assistant Professor of Biomathematics at Cornell University Medical College, as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Touro College, he guest-lectured at Columbia University School of Engineering and Business School. He is presently affiliated with the CUNY serving as an adjunct professor of physics at the City College of New York and Research Fellow at the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers. Alex Poltorak authored several books and many articles. He blogs about physics, kabbalah and Jewish philosophy.

One Comment

nice,
we were having a discussion in biblical Hebrew etymology on KoChaV (star or perhaps light trail per SPI-RALL cosmological redshift hypothesis thus the stars are in the Rakia) ) and KaV a measured line/rope
VaV being a connector as in MiTsVaH connectors.